Adjustable drum pedals are available that have one or more ways of altering the leverage of the pedal action and/or enabling the drummer to customize the feel of the pedal to his or her preference. However, the adjustment capability of some of these pedals is limited to a fairly narrow range. For example, in some cases, few adjustments are possible or the possible adjustments are limited to discrete values. Additionally, some pedals are not easy to adjust from the sitting/playing position.
In general, adjustable drum pedals tend to lack adjustability in one or more key areas, most notably, the cam mechanism. The cam mechanism is the portion of the pedal that converts the downward motion of the foot into forward motion of the beater that strikes the head of the bass drum. For example, a cam mechanism may be coupled to the pedal and move (rotate, for example) as the pedal is depressed. The cam mechanism may also be coupled to a drive mechanism (e.g., a rotating drive shaft) that operates the drum pedal beater according to the cam profile.
Different approaches have been used to address cam adjustability, including: using hinged cams (leverage is increased by putting screws behind the cams which cause them to hinge outward); using cams with indexed stops (leverage increases at each indexed increment, for example); and the use of a link to the footboard which slides upon a rail, for example, where moving the link towards the bass drumhead increases the leverage, and moving it away from the drumhead decreases the leverage.
Another approach uses a mechanism to move the footboard of the pedal forward and backward to increase or decrease the leverage of the mechanism relative to the cam. This technique can include 3 incremental “stops,” for example, to change the footboard position relative to the cam to adjust the leverage. However, the user is limited to the “stops” provided on the mechanism, and is unable to fine-tune the footboard adjustment beyond the supplied positions.